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Benny's Weather Forecast

Having announced Bernice Summerfield books to go with our upcoming Road Trip (starring Lisa Bowerman and featuring Arthur Darvill and Anjli Mohindra!) and Legion box sets, we can now reveal that the first novel, by Matthew Griffiths, will be entitled The Weather on Versimmon.

Beny isn't a stranger to the prose world, but producer Gary Russell wanted to move away from the anthologies which had become the norm and so this time the books are full-length novels. The Weather on Versimmon acts as a companion to the Road Trip box set, but that doesn't mean you have to read or listen to both in order to understand what's going on. The synopsis is as follows:

The Weather on Versimmon

Bernice - or Benny to her friends - is on the ultimate road trip, scouring the universe in search of her missing son, Peter. Along the way, she stops off on the planet Versimmon, where she is soon drawn into an expedition investigating the legendary Caldera Archive. The Archive is a series of tapestries and artworks grown into the ground, cultivated from the giant trees in the Versimmon Forests… and seemingly influenced by the planet’s weather conditions.

The trouble is that the artworks aren’t just tree roots: they are part and parcel of the entire eco-system of the planet. The trees and everything around them are alive, for now… but unscrupulous politicians are looking for ways to butcher the forests and exploit their DNA, all so that they might recreate the artworks again and again, selling them on to the highest bidder. And all at the expense of every single life-form on Versimmon.

Now Benny and her friends have to find a way to save the Versimmon ecosystem and preserve one of the galaxy’s hidden treasures… but a storm’s already brewing in the Versimmon sky.

The Weather on Versimmon is available to pre-order now, on its own or with the Road Trip box set. If you've already ordered the Road Trip box set, simply order from the 'Box Set and book' version of the page and you'll only be charged an additional £12 for the novel.